veteran’s corner

Tom Krabbenhoft

There has been a great deal of talk about supplying the Ukrainians with weapons. The two most talked about are the javelin and the stinger.

The javelin is an anti-tank missile and the stinger is an anti-aircraft missile. These were in limited supply when the conflict started but they are starting to flood the country now. The addition of these weapons and especially the willingness of people to use them is a tide reversal.

The javelin is a very portable small system which is easily deployable. It works by attacking vehicles on top of them. The thickest armor is used on the front of vehicles, where the attack traditionally comes. The javelin hitting the thin top of vehicles makes them deadly. It has a precursor charge which detonates to clear any reactive armor or other anti-armor countermeasures. The primary HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) round then detonates. The HEAT round has a conical shape. When it explodes it forms a small projectile of molten material that perforates armor.  The molten material behind the small hole follows. The entire inside and all its contents are burned and normally lead to the ammunition catching fire, and the entire vehicle engulfed in flames having javelins with the already abundant small arms AK 47s, machine guns. RPG 7s (Rocket Propelled Grenades) and Molotov Cocktails. On an ironic side point the molotov cocktail is a Finnish invention named for a Russian foreign minister. The Russians unjustly invaded Finland and suffered immensely at the hands of the Finns.

Most of the Russian vehicles are NOT tanks but are APC (Armored Personnel Carriers). Tanks APCs and Infantry should maneuver together and complement each other. Once the troops dismount they become vulnerable to small arms fire. Most casualties occur outside the vehicle.

Fighting in urban terrain is probably the most miserable and deadly scenario any ground troop can face.

Ideally, a building should be taken from the roof down. If you enter a building on the ground floor the people defending the building have the advantage. Holes can be cut in the floors allowing hand grenades to be dropped on those below. Stairs can be blocked with furniture, barbed wire and booby trapped accordingly. Gravity aids in rolling grenades down stairs are just a few of the hazards.

Combine all of this with the Ukrainians advantage of home terrain and everyone’s willingness to fight. Every curve in the road, pile of debris, stalled vehicle and building is a potential ambush and kill zone for Russian troops and vehicles.

It looks like the Russians have launched one of the most underwhelming offensives of all time.

Thank you all very much for the emails and comments about the last few articles regarding Ukraine.

 Next week I’ll write about the stinger missile and how it wrecked the offensive of the Russians and limited its aircraft abilities.

Comments:11btwk@gmail.com.